


Impressionist

by kuroi_atropos



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Brainwashing, Dark!Naruto, Gen, Naruto is Not a Fan of Konoha, Naruto is a Spy, Slight OP Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 20:25:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17732060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuroi_atropos/pseuds/kuroi_atropos
Summary: What happens when a young Kabuto comes across an even younger, still impressionable Naruto that can semi-dodge ANBU, wants to escape Konoha, and is uniquely placed in the Hokage’s regard? Well, let’s just say that Naruto would make for a very unique spy…More specifically a spy that is prone to harassing Kakashi with near daily pranks,  using his henged form Naruko to make friends, utilizing epic guilt trips, and generally causing mayhem to avoid getting caught as he navigates who to believe, who to send to the shinigami, and if there is really such a thing as friendship in the first place.





	Impressionist

\--December, 6 AK--

Kabuto smiled at the stall owner as she handed over his order of dango. The elderly woman practically cooed at him, and it took a lot to keep him from attacking the woman. He was 12 years old, almost 13, far past the age where someone should be ‘cooed’ at. However, Orochimaru-sama would undoubtedly be upset at him if he blew his cover this early in the game, and if Orochimaru-sama got mad, it would be about as pleasant for him as walking into Iwagakure with his current Konohagakure headband and his hair dyed yellow.  That’s if he’d be lucky.

The silver haired near-teen carefully made his way through the crowded streets as he munched on his treat, maneuvering towards a garbage can when he spotted a small, heavily laden down figure creeping along an alleyway. He blinked for a moment, amusedly taking in the overstuffed bag that had an instant ramen cup peaking out of a flap and a threadbare blanket rolled up on top that was all together almost as large as the small, blonde haired child carrying it. The boy kept glancing around furtively, and was making a remarkably successful attempt for one so young at avoiding attention while sneaking from one hiding spot to another. 

Kabuto glanced around; at least it appeared as if no one else had noticed the child, who was quite obviously up to something, more than likely a rather immature venture to run away. Kabuto was half tempted to leave the young ragamuffin to his own devices, but then he noticed something unusual. The boy would keep a watchful eye on the rooftops as well as the street, he wouldn't lean against walls or leave his feet in one spot for too long.

How interesting. Perhaps the boy came from a ninja family? At any rate Kabuto found himself intrigued enough to meander in the same direction as the boy, keeping an eye on him even as he made sure that he was always doing something, whether chatting with other genins for a second, looking at a set of needles at one shop, or a scroll at another. 

He shadowed the boy all the way to the main gate, and leaned against a wall in the shadow of a tree that had grown in just the right angle to mask him from the guard station yet afford him an easy view of where the boy hunkered down on his toes and fingers, hidden between a garbage can and a row of hedges. He could also see, depending on where he shifted, the entirety of the village’s checkpoint area. He made a mental note of this spot for later as he observed the boy examining any entering or leaving parties, waiting with astonishing patience for one so young for an opportunity. 

It came about 40 minutes later, when a fairly decent sized caravan of produce carts pulled up to the  chuunin manned guard post to present itself for inspection before leaving. It seemed as if the gate guards knew the caravan’s head guard, and a lively discussion took place as both of the gate’s most obvious watchers took to inspecting the caravan to get it through more quickly. Kabuto watched as the boy glanced up, and followed his line of sight to the mostly hidden ANBU that were stationed at the very top of the wall. 

He knew (though he wasn’t certain that the child did) that there was another set of completely hidden ANBU up there too. 

Sure enough, at a moment when all attention on the ground was on one side of the caravan and both of the semi-visible ANBU’s attention was focused outwards, the boy made a break for it along the adult deprived side of the carts. 

Kabuto glanced up and while he couldn’t see or hear the signal that warned them, saw both of the ANBU’s attention snap to the young boy and then definitely heard the sharp whistle they sent to the chuunins below who in a moment were over the tops of the carts and cornering the young runaway.

“Damn it you brat! How many times do we have to go through this?!” The first chuunin yelled down at the little boy who was facing him, glaring balefully. Kabuto firmly believed that that would be the end of it until shockingly the blonde struck out with a foot and kicked the chuunin in the shin hard enough for the teen to shout out and his eyes to water. The boy had dashed around him before he could blink, deliberately knocking into the cringing teen so that he fell into his fellow gate guard’s path and managing to make it a fair ways down the road before an ANBU swooped in from behind, only to fly backwards with the pack in her hands and the boy running even faster without the pack down the dirt path.

How very interesting. The other semi-visible ANBU came for the kid from beneath, only for the kid to apparently expect this and jump away from the reaching hands landing smack dab on the porcelain mask the second it followed the arms from the ground. The ANBU actually let out a curse as the boy bolted again and Kabuto could only watch in shock. Even if the ANBU weren’t trying that hard, it was obvious the kid knew how they were going to come after him and was planning around it. 

The boy quickly was quickly encircled by all four of the ninja he’d just made fools out of and trussed up in a rather ridiculous amount of ropes while the two chuunins argued over who had to take the brat to the Hokage this time. Now that--that was more than worth gold, Kabuto thought with a smirk. 

The brat, on top of being quick on his feet, showed a certain street intelligence. Combine that with the fact that he was important enough to be taken to the Hokage rather than just his home, wherever that happened to be, on top of the fact he obviously didn’t want to be in Konoha made for a few rather tempting possibilities. 

Kabuto decided to tag after the gate guard as he dragged a protesting child through the streets of Konoha with the pack slung over his shoulder. The blonde’s loud protests drew quite a bit of attention, and Kabuto felt a little startled by the way people seemed to disparage the child. People scoffed at him, turned their backs, glared down their noses while several made remarks about how monsters should be put down rather than be a public burden. 

Kabuto also noticed how the child, even over his shouts, obviously registered these comments and if anything they only spurred him on in his struggles against the chuunin who did nothing to defend the boy or stand up for him. Not even a single comforting glance was offered to the boy. None of the other ninjas in the vicinity were doing anything either, in fact several actually participated in tormenting the child.

While he could imagine the Nins of several other villages standing by and watching the systematic degradation and verbal abuse this boy was suffering, Konoha nins had the tendency to believe themselves superior to such petty things. Believed that they were defenders of justice and other crap that they used to reconcile their actions with the current opinions that relative peace had created about the monsters they were. They liked to think that they stuck up for the weak and the innocent, that they had morals. But here was one of their own, right in front of their eyes being virtually abused in public and they did nothing. 

This would have to be handled carefully, but Kabuto was fairly certain that he’d just located a new servant for Orochimaru-sama. One that was rather uniquely placed no less.

XXXXX

Saying that Uzumaki Naruto was mad was like saying that Konoha had a few trees around it. The statement came nowhere close to breaching the sheer amount of anger that the boy now felt. He had no words for it. Naruto felt no shame in scowling at the Old Man, who was the only (and he meant only) semi-nice person in this horrible village. 

Not that it mattered, because the Old Man had pretty much flat out told him that there was nothing he could do to help Naruto. But he was the Hokage, and Naruto knew what that was, what it meant. He could order someone to at least feed him, for someone to teach him to read like the other kids, to help him. But he didn’t… wouldn’t. 

If it was one thing Naruto had figured out in his 6 years of life, it was how to figure out when and where he wasn’t wanted. There were varying degrees of this, but even here, he could see that the Old Man didn’t really want him here, didn’t really care about why Naruto had tried to run away again. He mouthed the same old platitudes about trying to be nice to the orphanage staff, trying to be nice to the other children, yadda yadda yadda.

Naruto quickly got himself booted out of the man’s office by blowing a raspberry at the man when he mentioned giving the over worked orphanage staff a break. He growled at the thought of all of the people who worked at the orphanage and what they would do to him for this. Even though the Old Man blamed him not them for everything that he went through, they still got huffy any time Naruto saw him. That actually was one of the reasons that he knew the Old Man was important, because they always berated him for making the Hokage waste time on him.

The ancient hag that was the main caretaker of the orphanage was the one that met the chuunin dragging him by the scruff of the neck at the main doors to the older but well kept building. They exchanged a few brief words and she scowled down at him before nodding to the chuunin.

"I've got the brat from here, thanks." 

"No problem, Mari-san. Let us know if you need anything, hai?" 

"Maybe an eagle?" Naruto twisted his face right back as they looked at him with particularly nasty looks as laughed at the joke that he didn't get.

The chuunin shoved Naruto forward towards the old hag and then dropped his bag onto the ground, nodding one last time to the woman before jumping off back towards the big tower the Old Man's office was at. 

Naruto hated this woman especially. She constantly left Naruto out of activities, ‘forgot’ to give him the treats that the other children received, occasionally ‘forgot’ to feed him period, locked him out overnight and then took him to task in the morning for causing trouble by being outside after curfew and tons of other little things that let him know exactly how much she didn't want him, including the occasional slap when he argued back. Naruto had never, ever seen her hit another of the kids, even the ones that behaved way worse than he did. She only hit him.

He gave his best glare at her, crossing his arms over his chest to make himself look more stern. She scowled, reaching one gnarled hand to grasp him by the ear and drag him into the orphanage, leaving his bag behind in the entryway.

He didn't bother kicking or screaming against Mari-san. The hag may have been mean but she was old and he wasn't in the mood to get slapped without really fighting back today. 

The moment they passed her office Naruto knew where they were headed and couldn't stop from digging his heels in just a bit, but the old lady's scowl just deepened and she hauled him a little harder. She flung open the door to one of the storage rooms probably a little harder than need be and they went right past all the shelves of various playthings, a few of blankets, then more of miscellaneous broken items until they reached the back and the old, slightly rusty cabinet.

"I'm too old for this, if you're too wild for the nice things we provide you can stay in here till you at least appreciate them this time!" She said with a hiss as she slammed the metal door on him, locking him in the empty cupboard.

He knew not to fight too much once he was in, it was unstable and would fall over. He lost track of how long he was in the darkness, finally seeing a sliver of light then getting released by accident when a few other kids were looking for a board game. 

Naruto bolted as soon as the door open, and completely disregarding the fact that it was night out, flung open a window and leaped out. He raced across the field, jumped the small fence and kept running until he couldn’t run any more. 

He collapsed on a bench on the side of the road, pulling his knees up and resting his chin on them. It wasn’t like Naruto hated this village, he just wanted to leave. It was obvious no one wanted him here, he saw no reason for them to force him to stay, but they did. Naruto knew it had to be something with him, something that everyone but he himself knew about. 

Not like it mattered.  He’d asked tons of people more times than he could count what was wrong with him. This had gotten various responses, and only the Old Man’s was filled with something other than anger or hate, and that was strangely like the look Naruto saw on his own face when he hide near the pond from people that were yelling really badly at him.  “It isn’t anything wrong with you, it’s just an unfortunate situation that you need to be strong enough to withstand until people can see clearly.” When he’d asked what the situation was, the Old Man had told him it wasn’t something that Naruto would understand and sent him on his way with a coupon for ice cream. He’d tried to turn it in and had the cone dropped on the ground in front of him, the mean man saying that he was nothing but an animal and wouldn’t mind licking it up anyway, right?

Naruto kicked his feet back and forth as he tried to decide how to carry out his next attempt at getting away from this place. No matter how bad the world outside of Konoha’s walls were it couldn’t be any worse than inside of it. Outside there might be people who didn’t know what was wrong with Naruto, who might treat him like any other child. 

“Hey there, kid.” Naruto ignored the voice near him. It was probably a ninja trying to get him away from public areas or something. Well, he wasn’t in a very obliging mood.

“You look a little upset.” Why? Want me to say yes to whatever it is I look like so you can laugh at me for it?

“You know, when I was little, I liked to see how things worked. Since my Father was a Doctor and took me to work, this naturally included humans.” Naruto couldn’t help but glance up at the source of the voice and saw a young teenager with a hitai-ite now sitting beside him, staring across the street, not even looking at him. “After my Father died, no one in my home village was willing to take me in.  It was a difficult time after all, the war was just ending… So I left. I was only seven, probably a bit older than you if I hazard a guess. About two years ago, when I was ten I eventually came across a genin team from Konoha and ended up here.”

The older boy didn’t even look at him, and Naruto was getting more than a little nervous. “It took a while for them to trust me, some still don’t really. The medical knowledge from my Father helped, and my own determination. The team that found me was relatively nice, gave me a hand with the basics so I could get into the academy even as late as I did and I worked my butt off to pass with my age mates. I’m not the best, but I passed. Through it all, I was really terrified though. See there was one thing I’d lied about, when I came here.”

Naruto really froze then, people didn’t tell him things. People hated him. 

“I didn’t tell them what type of Doctor my Father was. The truth was my family were Eta, untouchables.” Naruto stared at him. He didn’t quite know what that meant, but the name sounded bad enough. “My Father, before he died, and my Mother before that, the few relatives we had before they died in the war or from the disease that took my Father… None of them complained. None of them fought back against the way people treated us. They were fine being ignored, ridiculed, blamed for every damn thing that went wrong whether we were responsible or not even though what we did was necessary if they wanted a clean, safe and predominantly outbreak free culture. Then no one would take me in, expected me to carry on just like my parents. Take their hatred and smile, forgive them because that was just the way the world worked. I left. They should have been able to overcome whatever their reasons were for a child. I didn’t want to take the risk that the people here wouldn’t be able to either.”

The older boy finally met Naruto’s eyes, making him gasp just a little, and something in him broke at the same time as something else felt better. The boys eyes, they were darker than Naruto’s but he could still see the hurt in them, and Naruto wasn’t sure how he knew, but he felt sure that the pain was the same type he felt in his chest whenever people got really mean.

“I, this village is better, but it is far from perfect.” The boy slowly stretched a hand out to Naruto and a small smile crept across his lips. Naruto wasn’t sure what this boy wanted, Naruto knew he hadn’t taken anythi- “My name is Kabuto, what’s yours?”

Naruto couldn’t help but stare at the hand, at the fact that someone actually wanted to introduce themselves to him, and after flicking his eyes up to met the boy’s again, he cautiously placed his own hand in Kabuto’s much larger one. He smiled a little tentatively as he answered, “I’m Naruto.”

The small smile widened, and Kabuto’s eyes lit up. “Well, Naruto. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” And Naruto’s heart almost burst as he realized the boy really meant it. 

XXXXX

A half hour passed, filled with a comfortable silence as they watched the clouds drift across the moon. The silence was broken by Naruto’s stomach rumbling. He clutched it tightly, a little scared that it would somehow break apart this fragile peace he’d gained with this nice boy. He was sure, despite the story that the boy had told him, that he would be mad at Naruto for making noise like everyone else. Instead he was a little shocked when the other boy let out a little chuckle. It wasn’t a mean one either, like some people’s. It was definitely, amused? Maybe. 

“From what I saw earlier, you did have a busy day, and from the sound of it you didn’t get any dinner. I’d offer to treat you, but everything is closed.” The boy snapped his fingers and Naruto jumped, looking up at him. “I don’t have much at my place since I’m going on a mission soon, but I do have some stuff. I can at least fix something for you if you don’t mind something simple.” Kabuto looked down at him, questioningly, and Naruto wasn’t sure what to do so he just nodded. “Great!” That big smile took over the other boy’s face again. Kabuto stood up and stretched before holding a hand out to him again. Naruto stared at it. The other boy gave it a shake. “Come on, take my hand, I can carry you over the roofs, it’s faster, and more fun too!” 

Naruto stared up at the other boy, a little shocked that he was actually offering to touch him again, something most people avoided doing unless they absolutely had too and then they only did once, not again. “Come on, I may be just a genin, but I promise I won’t drop you or anything.” Naruto carefully placed his hand in the other boy’s, and then yelped as he was unceremoniously yanked to his feet and before he realized what had happened was swung up onto Kabuto piggy-back style. He barely had a chance to wrap his arms around his neck, and he probably pulled the grey hair badly, before Kabuto had launched into the air and landed on the roof across the street. 

Kabuto’s arms, instead of at his side leaving it up to Naruto to hang on for dear life, were actually holding him securely. Another high leap and Naruto couldn’t help but glance downwards as the movement blew his hair around his face. 

“Hang tight!” Naruto held tight, and on Kabuto’s next leap he actually flipped in the air and landed on a balcony. “All right, kid. This is my place.” Naruto looked up at him, if it was his house, why weren’t they going through the door? Was Kabuto trying to get him in trouble? Kabuto opened the sliding door into a fairly decent sized living room with an attached kitchen. Just to be on the safe side Naruto hung back outside of the sliding door until Kabuto actual looked at him and called out to him in a friendly manner. Just before he stepped in he glanced around to see if he could spot any ninjas or MPs waiting to ‘catch him in the act.’ 

He very tentatively hovered in the middle of the living room as Kabuto bustled around the kitchen, not hesitating to turn on the lights and open cupboards. Naruto stayed right where he was, and glanced at the living room. There were bookshelves lining all the walls, a few overstuffed pillows thrown here and there, with more stacks of books and scrolls around each one. A bunch of the papers had diagrams that looked like body parts, but even the simple kanji was way beyond what he could understand. He guessed it matched with what Kabuto had said earlier, but he still wasn’t sure. Even if this was Kabuto’s apartment, he still couldn’t get why the older boy invite him over? No one ever let him into their home, if anything they held up seals or wards that hurt his heart to make him go away. 

“Grab a seat, Naruto! I’ll have the tea ready in a second. I had less than I thought though, so I hope you don’t mind a veggie stir-fry and rice.”

Naruto merely stared at the teen, not quite sure...

Kabuto came around the partition a few moments later, and frowned a little as he saw Naruto still standing. “I really don’t mind if you want to sit down, you know. Or do you prefer actual chairs? I don’t have any, but if we can use these tonight then I’m sure I can get a few after my next mission.”

"You… You'd get chairs for me?"

"Sure, I fail to see why not given the fact that I intend to have you over often and I don't want you to be uncomfortable." 

Naruto stared at him for a moment, there didn't seem to be any of that look that hovered around most people's eyes when they looked at him. It seemed almost like the really little kids that would sometimes watch him if he was doing something before their parents rushed him away. Kabuto was missing that edge that made Naruto's stomach twist up in knots like ramen and want to cry.

"It's fine... Th-thank you." Kabuto smiled at him. Really smiled and his eyes did this weird sparkle thing that he'd only seen the Old Man's occasionally do.

"If you're sure." He said as he held out the bowl of stir-fry to him. Naruto hesitatingly reached out for the bowl, waiting for it to drop, for the food to hit the floor and for Kabuto to yell. 

It was the best food Naruto had ever tasted. 

**Author's Note:**

> Eta/untouchables: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin
> 
> This chapter is only partially beta-read, so please point out any issues! 
> 
> Also, I vaguely recall Kabuto being adopted while in Konoha, but it fit a little better to have him on his own, so... That's part of the AU?


End file.
